Science

This press release from Oregon Health and Science University caught my eye. Like most people, I’m in a perpetual battle with my waistline, so new clues as to how to win the war are always welcome! 3JUA7J4BWKFQ The dietary concerns of too much fructose is well documented. High-fructose corn syrup has become the sweetener most [...]

A breathtaking new picture just released by NASA, from their Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Launched in 14 December 2009, WISE finished its testing phase on January 14 2010. In the two months since then it has already produced some spectacular data, and more than a few gorgeous images. A new infrared image from NASA’s Wide-field [...]

I know I post too many faeces related stories. I can’t help it. We British are culturally hardwired to find poo hilarious, and thus interesting: The whiskers, eyes, organs, and even genitals of tigers, and other big cats, are highly sought after for many medical and religious practices. These practices, along with widespread habitat destruction, [...]

This discovery is a couple of years old, but I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how humanity can improve itself (or as some folks call it “transhumanism”). Scientists from the University of Sheffield are developing an artificial ‘plastic blood’, which could act as a substitute for real blood in emergency situations. The ‘plastic blood’, [...]

From a Cell press release: Researchers have shown that they can create entirely new strains of infectious proteins known as prions in the laboratory by simply mixing infectious prions from one species with the normal prion proteins of another species. The findings are reported in the September 5th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell [...]

Cerro Paranal, home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, is certainly one of the best astronomical sites on the planet. Stunning images, obtained by ESO staff at Paranal, of the green and blue flashes, as well as of the so-called ‘Gegenschein’, are real cases in point. The Earth’s atmosphere is a gigantic prism that disperses sunlight. [...]

GENEVA (AFP) – Forget retail therapy for some relief from that winter cold — a study by Swiss scientists revealed on Wednesday that the flu virus can nestle and survive on banknotes for more than two weeks. Scientists from Geneva’s University Hospital were asked by a Swiss bank to carry out the study amid worries [...]

Just a couple of quickies today: Stanford, CA — Carbon emissions from human activities are not just heating up the globe, they are changing the ocean’s chemistry. This could soon be fatal to coral reefs, which are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. Scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department [...]

Record-breaking amounts of ice-free water have deprived the Arctic of more of its natural “sunscreen” than ever in recent summers. The effect is so pronounced that sea surface temperatures rose to 5 C above average in one place this year, a high never before observed, says the oceanographer who has compiled the first-ever look at [...]

While the biological basis for homosexuality remains a mystery, a team of neurobiologists reports they may have closed in on an answer — by a nose. The team led by University of Illinois at Chicago researcher David Featherstone has discovered that sexual orientation in fruit flies is controlled by a previously unknown regulator of synapse [...]